The head of the Republican National Convention planning committee says he’s unaware of a rumored walk-out of Ohio delegates and has a message for anyone who thinks about it: Don’t.
“I have no sense that it would happen and I don’t think it would happen,” said Steve King, chairman of the RNC committee on arrangements, after posing for pictures with RNC Chairman Reince Preibus. “And if it were even thought about I’d probably have something to say about it. I’d say don’t do it.”
And Ohio’s delegate seats being off to the side of the stage instead of front and center? Well…
“What can I say, the campaign has some influence on delegate seating,” King said. “This is about as intimate of delegate seating as I’ve seen in any city before, so I don’t care if you’re the District of Columbia way in the back, you’re going to be as close to this as any other convention.”
King, of Wisconsin, said the party will need to move beyond divisions — especially in the must-win Ohio — and he believes the still-fractured party will be unified this week.
“I think it started with the committee work last week, and I think that Thursday night’s a big night for Donald Trump, just as it was for Ronald Reagan in 1980,” King said.
“I assume, at least from the Republican standpoint here in Ohio, the alternative is unacceptable,” he said. “We can’t stand another four or eight years of the Obama administration.”